Grow the Company by Waiting for the Market to Turnaround

Well, here's another sure sign that I'm working for the wrong company. Rather than try to take market share from our competitors or come up with new products that users would get excited about, we're counting on the market/economy to turn around to drive the company's growth for the next year or two.

I don't know about you, but waiting for the pie to get bigger is not my idea of a successful corporate growth strategy. What makes our executives think that the economy will turn around and drive 20%+ growth next year? Seriously, I need to find out what they're smoking.

If I was running the company, I would never depend on the economy to be the only driver of the company's growth. Why place the company's future on something the company cannot control? How about trying to take market share from competitors? How about improving the current website by optimizing it (to improve conversion and click through rates)? Oh, right....that involves work and sound business fundamentals. Items that are non-existent at the company.

Sigh...I need a new job.

Worst Career Choice...EVER!

As it turns out, my situation at work got worse. I got thrown under the bus and have the tread marks on my back to show for it. A month ago I was told I had the smoothest running project of the 5 projects the company was undertaking in a massive website redesign initiative. Yesterday, I was told I wasn't doing my job and that I would be written up for it during mid-year reviews.

My reaction was WTF! You have got to be kidding me. The reason for the sudden turn? The Dev Director complained that I did not have all the business rules for a particular component thought through. Are you fucking kidding me? We're a fucking agile shop - we do this all the time. It's our fucking process...and he calls me out for this!

I've had it with this place. Accepting the offer to work here is hands down my worst career choice! I should have stuck with my previous job, even though we went through 4 rounds of layoffs in 3 months. I would have been happier there.

I have excellent references from all my previous employers. I know I didn't get stupid overnight nor did I forget how to be a good Product Manager. If you need a reminder of how bad my current company is run, just read this and this.

Maybe I should get myself this for Xmas:

Nighthawk Custom T3

Well, the day finally came. My 10-day waiting period is up and I was finally able to pick up the T3.

All is I can is "wow"! It is one of the finest pistols I have ever held. Everything just feels solid and tight. Racking the slide was a bit tight, but should get better once I've had a chance to run 500 rounds through it. The trigger is nice and smooth...very light. The Diamond Black finish looks terrific and from what I understand is the best finish that Nighthawk Custom offers.

Because I live in CA, Nighthawk Custom wasn't allowed to put the magwell on the T3. Instead, they included it in the package so that the owner can either install himself or have it installed by the gunsmith. Not sure yet if I'm going to install it, but will take my time making that decision. I'll be sure to send a quick email to Nighthawk and ask if there's anything in particular I should be aware of for installation. From the looks of it, it's basically punching the pin (out of the bottom of the main spring housing), install the magwell, and punch the pin back in. I'm hoping it's that simple.

A nice surprise I found in the Nighthawk paperwork was a magazine offer - 6 blued magazines or 4 stainless steel magazines for $100 plus shipping (roughly $109). That's too good of a deal to pass up and I'll be taking them up on their offer.

A1 Commercial...the Car, not the Steak Sauce

Living in Downtown Los Angeles can be interesting. When walking around the area, you run into all kinds of people - from your local area merchants to tourists to transients. One of the more interesting things you can run into are film shoots/production. With most of the major Hollywood studios nearby, a lot of television, major motion pictures and commercials get filmed in the area.

For example, the final battle in the first Transformers movie was shot in Downtown Los Angeles by 9th Street and Broadway. The new FlashFoward television show on ABC is based in Los Angeles. Although in episode 10 where the two agents traveled to Hong Kong was just shot in L.A.'s Chinatown...quite cheesy if you ask me.

Last night, one of the European car brands was shooting their latest commercial near where I live. It was an Audi (much to my delight) and it was the new Audi A1.

I couldn't get any up close pictures. The crew had the A1 in camouflage; then when they removed it, I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot.

I did however get some shots of them filming the commercial which are below. Not the best pics (since I only have a point and shoot camera), but hopefully you'll enjoy them.

The premise of the commercial is that when the A1 pulls out of the parking garage (pics 1 & 2), it gets pulled over by the police (pic 3). The A1 stops, but then makes a break for it by speeding away (pic 4). I hope Audi isn't trying to imply that Audi drivers are criminals! D'OH!

I can't wait to see the finished product. I hope this means that the Audi A1 is coming to the States, because there are reports that it may not come to the US market.

It's Good to be a Democrat

I follow a blog called the Big Picture and the author wrote a fab post today.

The money quote:

Obama has been more interested in sending out a pro-business signal to re-assure business interests and to court independent voters. I believe he has made a political calculation that he can hold his base of support even if he adopts a more center-left positioning because they have nowhere else to go. It’s not like they are going to vote for the Republicans. This has been an effective way to power for left-leaning mainstream parties for at least 15 years.

At this point in my life, I consider myself an Independent who votes for the person with the best ideas and can think critically. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of choices that fit this criteria when I go to vote. However, if you're running for public office, you have to believe you're better off running as a Democrat rather than a Republican.

If you're a Republican and you piss off your constituents, they'll stay home the next time you need their votes. If you're a Democrat and you piss off your constituents, they'll still vote for you the next time around because they don't want a Republican to win. The caveat is if you have another Dem running against you, then all bets are off....just ask Joe Lieberman.

ucla Has a Football Team?

If you're a Trojan, this is classic. If you're a bRuin, not so much.

Enjoy!



12/15/2009 Update: The one bRuin player I will call out is Brian Price. He is a beast and will be playing on Sundays in the near future.

Fight On!

Graduating to the Next Caliber - .45ACP

A while back I wrote that I was considering getting another gun. At one point, I was very close to buying a Walther PPK (actually, a Manurhin-made PPK). It didn't quite work out as other obligations came up. However, acquiring another handgun has been on my mind.

After much thought I decided to pass on getting the PPK. I wanted to go with a bigger caliber - either a .40cal or .45ACP. Then last month, I went to Greg Block's Intermediate Handgun class where half the class had 1911's in .45ACP. I asked a ton of questions during class and became convinced that .45ACP was the way to go. The main reason...check out the following:

The .45ACP is on the left and the 9mm is on the right. As my wife stated when I first showed her the .45ACP, "You can kill someone with that." Hopefully I won't ever have to use it, but if I did have to, I wanted something with a bit more stopping power.

The hard part of all of this is deciding what 1911 to get. There are many manufacturers of model 1911 handguns - Colt, Smith & Wesson, Kimber, Springfield Armory, Dan Wesson, etc. I wasn't interested in a full size Government model (5-inch barrel) as I have small hands and liked the length of my Walther P99 (approximately 4-inch barrel). I began searching for a Commander or Officer's model. I did a ton of research online and narrowed down my choices to a Nighthawk Custom T3, a Kimber Pro CDP II, and a Kimber Compact CDP II.

I read tons of posts about these 3 models - how the handgun operated, its accuracy and reliability, the type of customer service offered by the manufacturers, etc. At the end of the day, Nighthawk Custom won out. The T3 received an excellent online review at the M-1911 Forums and Nighthawk Custom's reputation for top notch customer service won me over.

The T3 isn't in my possession yet as I have to wait out California's 10-day waiting period. However, I will soon have it and cannot wait to post pictures. For a sneak peek of what I'll be getting, check out the following quick review I found on YouTube:

Disappointing USC Football Season Comes to an End

Sigh...the end of a very disappointing regular season came and went. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was not surprised by the Trojans' loss to Arizona.

I can't comment much other than that as personal obligations prevented me from attending the game. However, I do have a few comments to sum up the season:

• We now see why true freshmen QB's are typically asked to redshirt. They just aren't ready to play and perform at a consistent level for the entire season. This was what we saw with Matt Barkley....and in fact, I would say that he regressed over the course of the season as opposing teams got tape on what Barkley is capable of and schemed accordingly.
• The SC offense had no identity this year. You would think that with a true freshmen QB starting, the coaching staff would rely on the running game to take pressure off of Barkley. Unfortunately, the SC coaching staff had other ideas. At this point, I'm still wondering what those ideas were. It just didn't work as everything seemed to change/vary from game to game. What should have happened is that the coaches should have given Allen Bradford the ball and run it. And can we finally admit that Joe McKnight is NOT Reggie Bush?!?! Let's stop pretending.
• The SC defense was clearly in a rebuilding mode. Losing the entire starting linebacking corps from last season along with a starting defensive end WAS a major issue for this team. We just couldn't stop anyone when it mattered the most.
• While I did see some improvement from the SC special teams as the year progressed, it's still mediocre. We really need a better placekicker who can kick and make field goals beyond 40 yards. We needed to score this year and could not count on a sure 3 points from the field goal unit when the offense sputtered. The punting got better which is nice, but kickoff coverage still bite us every other time and kickoff/punt returns are inconsistent.
• Coach Carroll needs experienced coordinators. While coaching staff turnover is expected (especially when USC has had as much success as it had in the prior 7 seasons), USC is not the place for on-the-job training for inexperienced defensive and offensive coordinators. USC is big boy college football. We expect to contend for Pac-10 and the BCS Title....it's not the place for these coordinators to get their feet wet and learn on the job. Coach Carroll can't do everything and he needs to understand that.
• HEART...where was the "Always Compete" nature of this team? It too often looked like this team just thought it could show up and win. Even if we lose, I want the team to play hard...ALL the time! As we've seen, every game counts and letting up for even a single play can cost you the game and a chance at the BCS Title.
  

We now have approximately 3 weeks to prepare for the Emerald Bowl. Let's hope the team can psych itself up to play and win....and set the stage for next season.

The only silver lining from this year was that SC beat the Irish and the bRuins!

Fight On!

The Baked Pork Chop Rice Crown

For those of you who want the absolute best baked pork chop rice, there's only one place to visit - Fat Siu Lau in Macau, China!

Trust me when I say it is the best that I have ever had. It is the yardstick by which I measure all other baked pork chop rice. My first experience with Fat Siu Lau was in Nov 2006. It was on my honeymoon as my wife and I visited Hong Kong and decided to do a 1-day trip to Macau.

Fat Siu Lau has been around since 1903 and is known for many dishes: roasted pigeon, prawn bisque, and seafood rice amongst others. But when we visited, I only had pork chop rice on the brain and it did not disappoint.

Here's a picture from my 2006 visit.

And here are a few from my visit last month (Nov 2009).

Funny enough, if I was to give a rating for the last visit, it would only be 4.5 (whereas my first visit was a perfect 5.0). The reason per my 5 point grading system:

• Good amount of tomato taste in the sauce - 1 point
• The fried rice was flavorful - 1 point
• Pork chops were nicely fried and tasty - 1 point
  (Note: Even my wife, who does not like pork chops, said that she would order it after taking a single bite.)
• Good amount of cheese that was nicely browned - 1 point
• The texture was a bit dry...the chef left the dish in the oven a bit too long and it dried out the sauce - 0.5 point
  

Even at a less than perfect score this time around, Fat Siu Lau still ranks at the top of all the baked pork chop rice dishes I have eaten over the past 3 years. It really is that good!

This is now a must have dish for me anytime I visit Hong Kong. A day trip into Macau to see the casinos and a meal at Fat Siu Lau. It's all good!

Bonus Pic - That's me in front of the original Fat Siu Lau restuarant. Check out the 100 year old wooden door/entrance!

PS - Don't mind me in the FOBbie shirt. I ran out of clothes and had to resort to drastic measures as I was not going to miss my trip to Macau.

The Misspeaking Vice President

Question of the day:

When does Vice President Biden NOT misspeak?

Just asking...

Beat the bRuins!

If it wasn't for the controversy produced by the UCLA timeout and the subsequent USC touchdown in the final minute of the game, this game would have been considered mediocre at best. Much ink has already been spilled on the controversy and I'm not about to add any more.

What I will say is that the SC team is still playing at a very mediocre level.

• The play calling still puzzles me. For example, it's 1st and 35 (yes, 35 yards needed for a 1st down) and we decide to call a run play? Are you kidding me?
• Matt Barkley is a TOM - turnover machine. That pass he threw for an interception was absurd...regardless of what Coach Carroll says about Damian Williams not running the route correctly. (Hmmm, maybe this explains why the coaches called a run play on 1st and 35?!?!)
• USC receivers were open all night long and Barkley only threw to them a few times the entire game. We, the fans in the stands, saw the open receivers, but MB never checked down to them. Instead he forced more than a handful of passes into coverage.
• The SC defense still has problems with running quarterbacks. Can we finally do something about that? This has been a problem since 2005 (remember Vince Young?) and we still have not solved it!?!?!
• The SC kicker can't make any field goals beyond 40 yards. Can we stop attempting these long field goals already? Granted it was at the end of the first half, but let's stop kidding ourselves.
  

We have one game left against Arizona and I'm not sure how we're going to do against them. Does SC come out and play with heart/passion? Or does the TO/TD controversy this week distract the team in its preparation?

A win will probably put SC in a higher tier bowl game. With that comes an additional month's practice time which this team sorely needs....and a good headstart to next season!

Fight On!

Bonus - A pic from the near "brawl" at the end of the game.